Please, anyone in authorities, Parliament and Governmental Institutions and so on., learn this text nicely.
Forget about how good, sturdy and essential we’re and be humble to draw vacationers. Be sensible on what now we have to supply a vacationer, make the optimum use of the nonetheless restricted issues now we have to point out and be inventive in how and what we will shortly change.
If we need to change into an upcoming mass tourism nation (and sure I feel now we have that potential) then begin our tourism potential via the eyes of a vacationer and neglect about pondering and tourism via our Ghanaian eyes.
The cause is that now we have a mismatch between native and international vacationers expectations, being one of the essential obstacles to develop our tourism potential.
I’ve written articles on tourism or tourism associated articles on Ghana earlier than. But within the gentle of our failing economic system, I’m recommending and making an attempt to elucidate how tourism can save our economic system. (for readers who don’t know me I’ve added a few of my credentials underneath this text).
Economic causes to start out massive scale and quick modifications in our method to tourism:
Tourism and the hospitality trade is among the sectors of Ghana with the very best multiplier impact.
The multiplier impact is an financial time period, referring to the proportional quantity of enhance in remaining revenue that outcomes from a capital injection. In layman’s phrases, what number of instances is a USD spend within the hospitality sector can consequently influence different sectors?
Every USD, Euro of GBP you spend money on tourism, will create different investments in different sectors. The are most used multiplier results that we measure: enhance in jobs, enhance in earnings.
A brand new lodge, motel, guesthouse or different vacationer lodging creates rapid jobs in building and building supplies.
After the development it creates jobs in manufacturing of stock. After completion it creates direct jobs for lodge workers but additionally oblique jobs for meals, drinks and repair suppliers.
Every vacationer lodging additionally attracts oblique jobs and new upcoming enterprise within the space: ingesting spots, native meals joints, manufacturing of souvenirs and so on.
Other sectors with the next multiplier impact are: Oil refinery, manufacturing, mining. But all of them have the burden of giant investments and/or a tough or costly provide chain in Ghana while tourism might be shortly stimulated by a whole lot of smaller scale investments, improve of points of interest, taking away obstacles to enter Ghana.
Let me begin with the federal government, they’re in cost to make vacationer entry to Ghana simpler and create funding setting in tourism.
Let me clarify what a vacationer experiences as obstacles:
High prices of transport to the vacation vacation spot, prices and infrequently tough methods to acquire a visa, well being points and particularly vital medicine and vaccinations.
Ghana can also be having an additional drawback being the truth that our raining season is within the European vacation season.
The authorities has a (in my view) unsuitable method for vacationers to get visa to Ghana. For instance: Reciprocity, that means if a Ghanaian wants a visa for a Schengen nation then a citizen from that nation wants a visa to enter Ghana.
A customer wants an invite to get a visa to enter Ghana, a customer wants to point out he booked a lodge in Ghana and so on.
Almost essential tourism international locations in Africa have changed Visa functions at their embassies with Visa’s on arrival. That would assist Ghana’s vacationer entry enormously.
Many international locations all over the world have utterly waived Visas for vacationers from the developed world or very inexpensive Visa charges.
The prices to fly to Ghana are nonetheless ridiculously excessive. Not solely as a result of airways are over harvesting on African locations but additionally as a result of our airport taxes are a lot too excessive, even in comparison with our neighboring international locations.
In my (not so humble) opinion Ghana is concentrating on fast revenue via Visa and airport taxes as an alternative of direct spending of vacationer within the nation.
Another impediment is the prices of medicine to soundly journey to Africa and Ghana. For instance, though there isn’t any yellow fever in Europe or the USA, vacationers with no yellow fever vaccination aren’t allowed to enter. (It would make rather more sense to not make them and Ghanaian depart with no yellow fever vaccination).
Unfortunately, typhoid, cholera, covid19 vaccinations are vital.
Unfortunately, Ghana alone can’t change the picture of the African continent by itself. Many folks nonetheless see Africa as poor, underdeveloped, filled with scaring deceases, corruption, warfare and different risks. But the extra constructive experiences a vacationer who visits our lovely nation has, the faster that opinion will change.
The authorities is having unsuitable priorities within the growth of tourism. Ghana is, similar to many underdeveloped international locations concentrating on excessive finish tourism.
That is unsuitable, learn hereunder:
A research of tourism ‘leakage’ in Thailand estimated that 70% of all cash spent by vacationers ended up leaving Thailand (through foreign-owned tour operators, airways, lodges, imported drinks and meals, and so on.
In different phrases: If Ghana units up a neighborhood web site for vacationers to ebook and arranges its personal cheaper transport to Ghana with a low value airline who enjoys decrease airport taxes, and serves vacationer native meals and domestically produced drinks we will scale back the leakages of tourism enormously.
Expedia, Booking.com, Airbnb and others take a fee of 10-20% of the reserving of a lodge in Ghana. That is cash a vacationer spends on his vacation that won’t find yourself in our native economic system.
Airport taxes for each vacationer are: economic system class in Ghana are over 120 Usd per ticket
Landing rights for airways in Ghana are 2-4 instances costlier as different international locations.
High finish lodges are principally international owned, income shall be ship again to the international locations of the traders and won’t find yourself in our economic system.
They are serving imported meat, fish, greens, drinks and so on. so more cash goes out of Ghana.
One of the explanations to make the long run vacationer conscious of Ghana as an inexpensive vacationer vacation spot and selling guesthouses is that for each vacationer that has the spending energy to remain in a 4-5 star lodge there are a lot of extra vacationer that may afford cheaper lodges.
I respect and am a fan of Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) promotions like “the year of return” and its comply with ups. But GTA can accomplish that rather more.
Backpack tourism, Family holidays, Senior holidays, Birdwatchers holidays, Hunting holidays (regulated), Cultural tourism, Adventure holidays and so on..
My recommendation to GTA is don’t solely promote 4-5 star lodges as a result of that market is 90% enterprise associated and 10% leisure.
The Leisure market is way bigger than the ten% of vacationer who can afford a vacation in a 4-5 star lodge. Looking on the newest figures of completely different establishments that are publishing statistics on tourism exhibits that the variety of vacationers that may afford international holidays are as much as 200 instances increased than vacationers who can afford 4-5 star lodges.
On high of that, leisure vacationers are simpler and quicker to influence to go to Ghana than enterprise vacationers.
